City's Voter List A Matter Of Debate

As registered Democrats head to the polls today to cast ballots in Hartford's primary, some officials are fretting over a perennial election issue: the integrity of the city's voter list.

Some of those eligible to vote in the mayoral contest, which pits incumbent Michael P. Peters against Councilwoman Elizabeth Horton Sheff, could find their names marked ``inactive'' when they arrive at the polling place. That's because, the city says, they failed to respond to a canvassing of voters earlier this year.

Inactive status will have little practical effect, however. Thousands of voters whose residency could not be verified by registrars will be able to vote simply by showing up at the polls.

Changes to state election laws that took effect this year prohibit so-called inactive voters from being purged from the rolls, said JoNel Newman, an lawyer with the Connecticut Civil Liberties Union.

``You can't just assume that because someone did not respond to a canvass card that came in the mail, then that person is inactive,'' Newman said.

Newman said the changes were intended, primarily, to preserve the voting rights of urban Latinos, some of whom tend to move more frequently and therefore are at greater risk of being missed in a voter canvass.

But city officials say they are concerned that by not trimming the rolls of inactive voters, the list remains bloated and is an inaccurate picture of the true voting population. That makes it harder to pass referendums, which require approval of a percentage of registered voters, and can increase the chance of fraud.

Last November, registrars caught more than 100 former Hartford residents trying to vote in the city after their names had been purged from the list.When confronted at the polls, they acknowledged they no longer lived in the city.

Tony Mein, Hartford's Democratic registrar of voters, said 15,000 people did not respond to registrar mailings or could not be located through checks of motor vehicle and social service agency records. They are counted among the 49,000 registered voters in Hartford.

``When you look at the numbers, basically you're talking about 15,000 people who have moved out of the city yet are still on the list,'' Mein said.

Mein, along with other registrars, spent Monday setting up polling places and instructing moderators and poll workers. Voters in Hartford's primary will choose between two competing slates of candidates for mayor, city council, treasurer, constables and selectmen.

There are 37,600 registered Democrats eligible to vote in the primary.